Taunton Press

What are some of the largest magazine media companies expecting from 2014 in the world of magazine media? What are Active Media Interest, American Media, Inc., Condé Nast, Dennis Publishing, Hearst Magazines, Heinrich Bauer USA, Meredith Corp., Rodale Inc., The Taunton Press and Time Inc. up to in 2014?

Well, for this installment of "The 2014 Great Expectations" the CEOs and presidents of the aforementioned magazine media companies offer their expectations regarding the status and future of magazine media circulation and distribution in 2014.

Imagine, if you will, a cozy academic auditorium filled with professionals from every part of the publishing universe -- publishers, editors, circulators, investment bankers, writers, digital visionaries, retail experts, printers and even people who sell paper. Sure, and let's throw a pundit or two into the mix and then fill the rest of the seats with enthusiastic journalism students. What you have is the ACT 4 Experience at Ole Miss created and hosted by Dr. Samir Husni.

In a very real sense our industry is grappling simultaneously with its near and far future, both of which have alternate possibilities that seem to transform every day. I would further comment that our near future may be somewhat different from our far future.

The new value-driven consumer and changing retailer strategies pose challenges for many retail product categories, including magazines. The upside: They also open new opportunities for magazines to partner with retailers to achieve specific chain objectives, as well as boost magazine sales.

In a frenzied, media-rich world, it becomes very easy to embrace each new content-delivery system as though it will become the next, and only, big thing. Massive investments? Of course. Proven results? Not so sure. Strong revenue streams? Not yet. Paywalls rather than free content? Still hoping.

Now that Apple has agreed to new, more favorable terms for selling digital magazine subs on the iPad, publishers like Conde Nast, Hearst, Forbes and Rodale are hurrying to market them, both as stand-alone products and as adjuncts to print subscriptions.

Looking back, 2006 has been a relatively good year for many publishing companies. If you review the ongoing Publishers Information Bureau reports, it appears overall consumer-magazine ad revenue is up over previous years, and digital revenues continue to climb to help offset print losses of the last few years that for a number of business-to-business and consumer publications have yet to be recovered. Smart publishers, however, aren’t relying solely on revenue to drive profits. Rather, they’re continuing to focus on best practices in publishing processes and technological implementation to become more efficient and cut costs. Publishing Executive found leaders in the industry to share